Business Booms for Louisiana Pipe Company Thanks to Trump Tariffs

Nati Harnik/Associated Press31 Aug 2018

New Orleans, LA — The owner of a Louisiana pipe company says business is booming thanks to President Trump’s tariffs on imported steel and aluminum.

In an interview with the Monroe News Star, Jackie Rosenberg said his company Sol’s Pipe and Steel, which buys steel to make into pipes for domestic projects, has benefitted greatly from Trump’s 25 percent tariff on steel imports despite costs slightly rising.

Greg Hilburn with the Monroe News Star reports:

“America shouldn’t be in a position where it has to rely on foreign steel for its ships, tanks and skyscrapers,” said Jackie Rosenberg. “It’s a strategic metal.” [Emphasis added]

…

He has since had to buy steel at higher prices after exhausting his inventory, but he said a booming economy hasn’t reduced demand for his pipe or plates. [Emphasis added]

Rosenberg said steel prices have risen about 25 percent since the tariffs were put in place, but the more expensive material hasn’t dampened “a strong surge in our own business” in 2018, although he declined to provide specific revenue. [Emphasis added]

Sol’s Pipe and Steel employs about 100 workers at its Monroe, Louisiana plant. Rosenberg’s father, Sol Rosenberg who founded the pipe company, survived the Holocaust and was the only member of his Polish family to do so.

As Breitbart News has chronicled, Trump’s tariffs have been a boon to steel towns like Granite City, Illinois that were previously crushed by free trade. Likewise, Ashland, Kentucky, another small town that had its regional economy destroyed by free trade, will soon be getting a new aluminum mill that will employ 550 American workers.

Ashland, Kentucky is just one small community that was destroyed by free trade (633 U.S. steelworkers laid off in 2016) that is getting much-needed relief thanks to Trump's tariffs on aluminum imports. https://t.co/zP8UIVcgmS

Trump’s tariffs, as Breitbart News reported, has created more than 11,000 American jobs in the economy in the last six months, according to research by the Coalition for a Prosperous America. This means that there are 20 times as many American jobs that have been created thanks to Trump’s tariffs on imported foreign goods than jobs that have been lost.

Since 2001, free trade with China has cost millions of Americans their jobs. Between 2001 and 2015, about 3.4 million U.S. jobs were lost due to the country’s trade deficit with China, as Breitbart News reported.

Of the 3.4 million U.S. jobs lost in that time period, about 2.6 million were lost in the crippled manufacturing industry, making up about three-fourths of the loss of jobs from the U.S.-Chinese trade deficit.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.